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CHAPTER XXIV.

GULE-HISSA OVASSY.-A LARGE LAKE. ANCIENT RIVER CALBIS.-EXTENSIVE PLAINS.-CARREEUKE.-ITS BAZAAR.-PRICE OF CATTLE.— CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE.-DENIZLEE.—ITS INHABITANTS.-CHANGE OF LAW.LAODICEIA. HIERAPOLIS.-RETURN TO SMYRNA.

May 19th.-After winding through a series of mountaintops, slightly raised above the plain we had traversed, we suddenly arrived at an extensive and cultivated country, bounded by Mount Cadmus or Babadah on the north. This large and highly productive district is called Gule-hissá Ovassy, or 'Rose-castle Valley,' which is left entirely blank on all our maps. I already observe much cultivation, several rivers, and many villages dotted over the wide extent of country before us.

Hoomarhoosharry.-We have moved twenty-five miles northward, and have made but little apparent progress. over this extensive valley, which all bears the same name. Immediately over the brow of a little hill, on leaving our tent, we were surprised at finding a village, and before it a highly picturesque and extensive lake, into which ran out a promontory, terminated by a craggy rock, upon which appeared to be some ruins of a castle; this may have given the name to the whole district; the lake is called Gule-hissá Gouluh. A few huts at the foot of the castle-rock are called Olooboonar-cooe, meaning 'Dead-water Village.' Skirting

the lake, close under the cliff of the mountains, we found large covered sheds, in which is held the great market or bazaar; this spot was called Bazaar-cooe. In the burialgrounds around were many remains of columns, pedestals, and sculptured white marble, but all in a late and not pure style.

In about an hour we crossed a considerable river, running toward the north from the range of mountains to the southeast, and continued our way over a plain of rich soil, entirely cultivated with corn, which was just springing out of the ground. About fifteen miles on our way the soil became lighter, and was filled with stones of igneous rocks. For the next ten miles we entered quite a different region; barren hills, which we crossed, protruded into this part of the valley, while the river wound around their bases. The whole of these were quite distinct from the high mountains of limestone rising above them, and had all been deposited at their feet amidst running waters; the same power is now again washing them away, although they consist of rolled fragments of volcanic stones, cemented strongly together with a deposit of lime. This pudding-stone rock stands out in most grotesque forms, and often in thin shelves from the face of the rocks, upon which our road ran. Beyond these rocks were a series of barren hills, the arid soil not even producing a tree. A few bushes of the little oak-shrub are

all that find root on this sandy district; but on our left beyond the river, whose course we still followed toward the north, the soil was apparently good, and green with cornfields.

A considerable and permanent stream crossed our road on its way to the river in the plain. This great river, which rises in the south-east, is, I find, the ancient Calbis, the modern Dollomon-chi, which we had crossed with such difficulty above a hundred miles below, and within ten miles of its mouth.

This village of Hoomarhoosharry stands upon the plain, or rather on a bay out of the great plain, and has the peculiarities of such agricultural places. The mountainous character of the houses has changed, and mud walls and ditches have supplanted the fences of trees and thorns. Flat-topped mud houses, and a number of poles for drawing water from the deep wells, were the features of this little village, in which all our wants were soon supplied with fowls, eggs, and milk. I was amused at seeing here, as I had formerly done in the northern parts of Anatolia, agricultural implements of the most ancient forms retained in use- -"the threshing instrument having teeth," mentioned by Isaiah*, and the plough and carts described by the earliest classic writers. Rising from the plain, at the foot of the surrounding hills, was the village of Tourtakar, and about half-way up the craggy mountain were some ruins of an ancient city. We were told that several marble sarcophagi and columns, used now at the mouth of the wells, had been brought from the "old castles," but that all the buildings had fallen down. We could see the ruins of a city, with extensive walls, high up in the mountain, but the intense heat of the weather and the fatigue of travelling made us satisfied with this information, and we arranged to proceed on our route at two o'clock in the morning.

* See page 51.

May 20th.—Although we have travelled all day, we have only reached this place, a distance of thirty-five miles, and have just light left to enable us to review the whole line of our route. The tent is pitched at the northern end of this wonderful valley, or rather elevated plain; for I find we are still higher than the Yeeilassy of Satala-cooe: the thermometer indicates an altitude of above five thousand feet. Looking toward the south, the plain is bounded by the range of snow mountains which forms the barrier of Lycia, running from Dædala to the Taurus range in Pamphylia. On the right is another fine snow-capped range, from Cadmus at our back, and extending as far as Moolah in the south-west*. On the left are the high craggy cliffs among which the Calbis takes its rise, and behind which lies Pamphylia. The high lands within these mountain-chains form a part of Phrygia.

Soon after leaving Hoomarhoosharry, which we did by moonlight this morning, we passed the village of Yoomahoodas, situated at the foot of some stupendous cliffs, under which our road lay for two or three hours. The eagles were soaring around their nests, and the singular cackling of the red-ducks, which also built in the loftiest peaks of the rocks, often attracted our attention to these giddy heights; the call of the partridge was frequent in the little tufts around us. Long before daylight the plain on our left was alive with the yokes of oxen dragging the plough, and a kind of rake, which seems to be used here instead of the bunch of thorns more general in the country; this probably arises. from the scarcity of trees, for the whole plain produces no

* In my map, the coast of which is made from the chart just received by the Admiralty, a great change will be observed near the ancient Cnidus. By the ancient survey the gulf is found to extend above twenty miles further eastward than hitherto known, and the isthmus was equally erroneous in its form. In consequence of this discovery Moolah is found to be near to the sea, and I should suggest that it is the site of the ancient Pedassis.

thing but the wild pear, which is dotted over the land, affording little shade, but forming a good post for the cattle.

In every direction along this extensive flat we saw lines of people travelling in the cool of the morning, mostly upon asses, toward one point, which was also our destination,— the village of Carreeuke. At this place is held a great bazaar: thousands of gaily dressed people were assembled under and around two immense covered sheds; all seemed busied with their sales and purchases. The gay-coloured shoe-mart and the beautiful carpets and rugs were the most striking features. The women in this valley, although Turks, do not veil themselves; a number were assembled under some trees, away from the bustle of the fair, and in the only shade that we saw; under this we proposed to bait and have our breakfast. I feared that a command from our Cavass was the cause of the women quitting the shade, for our convenience; but on inquiry I found that a woman who lived in an adjoining hut or shed claimed this shade for her customers, for whom she made coffee, and took charge of their horses. We therefore purchased from her some fire-wood and eggs, and with a present amply repaid her for the use of the scanty shade of a few wild pear-trees.

The authority of the Cavass kept the wondering people at a distance, otherwise we should have been surrounded by the hundreds who passed us on their way from the market. We spoke with some few of these, asking ordinary questions connected with their vocations, and I was surprised to find that the beautiful little cattle used for ploughing were sold at so low a price: four-year-old oxen, fat enough to kill, were purchased for eighty, ninety, or a hundred piastres; the latter price being less than a pound of our money. cow and calf were sold for one hundred and fifty piastres, and excellent horses for two hundred and fifty. The Turks often dispose of their things by auction, and this sale has a peculiarity unknown to us: the lot is put up, and compe